asher__jo
Active Member
The thing that reassures me is that density will come with the "subway", and slowly you might see Eglinton W urbanize...of course this is probably a 10 year plus reality.It seems wasteful to put a subway under a road that prioritizes car traffic. People want to get off the subway and walk into a grocery store after work, to a nice cafe, restaurant or bar, or to a public space. They don't want to have to waste time taking a series of buses after taking the subway and then walking through a massive parking lot to get to a business so that it takes them twice or three times longer to get around. The people on the subway are "traffic" too.
To plan a subway under a street and then not encourage it to be pedestrian friendly with many businesses fronting onto it and residences in close proxity seems like clueless transit planning by people who always intend to drive for every task. Then, when people actually want subways in dense and pedestrian friendly areas, they're told there's no money or no one will ride it.
The money was already spent making driving cushy in the suburbs by taking transit off the street and placating the same NIMBYs who will also be opposing densification. The subway is more than just a tool to raise the property values of suburban homeowners with 3 cars in their driveways while keeping their private vehicle commutes as convenient as possible. It's a way of developing the city and discouraging car use. But it has to go hand-in-hand with the right land use, which means increased density and mixed-use zoning.